Loss for Life
by Dorryza
Summary: Ignoring 13-2. The Group meets with Etro to try and bargain for Fang and Vanille. Little do they know that there has to be loss for there to be life... Oneshot, and the ending of a not-written story. Hopefully, it's still understandable.


I don't know why, but this scene just wouldn't get out of my head. Maybe I've just been thinking too hard recently about these types of things.

Anyways, this was meant to be the last scene of _Stopping the Pain_, but I had too many plot holes for that to happen. I just really wanted to get it out though, I guess.

* * *

_Step_

_Step_

_Step_

_Thump_.

"There. They're here," Snow called out. "Now, bring them back!"

"I'm sorry, but I cannot." The Goddess Etro stepped out from behind a pillar.

"What?" Lightning stepped forwards, eyes blazing. "You promised you'd bring them back if we brought them here." She gestured to the realm around them, filled with neverending fountains and columns, supporting impossibly high ceilings.

"Yeah!" Hope shouted. "You promised you'd bring Fang and Vanille back!", waving furiously at the two statues that had been painstakingly carried.

"I did not," said Etro in her ethereal voice. "I merely said that bringing them here was your only chance at bringing them back."

"An' what's that, god lady?" Asked Sazh. "It wasn't enough to fight through 3 realms of monsters, hundreds of miles, at least 3 mountain ranges…" As Etro shook her head, the old man (now with a significantly larger amount of grey hair) put his head into his hands and muttered, "just can't get a break."

"But wait," Snow said. "They're just sleeping, right? Why can't you just wake them up?"

Etro turned around. "Every person has two equal parts parts."

She pointed at Snow. "The Body." Then, caressing some smoky thing drawn out of the air, "and the Soul."

"The body cannot live without the soul, and the soul cannot live without the body."

"And the Crystals are only the body, but not the soul," Lightning mused.

"So how do we get these souls back?" Sazh asked.

"I cannot simply give them to you," said Etro. "That would cause imbalance in the world. To keep balance, one must give one for me to return one."

Silence reigned for several long seconds as everyone digested the fact.

"The soul and body are equal, right?" asked Lightning. Etro nodded.

"If we give up a soul, and a bo-"

"Oh no you don't," growled Snow. "I'm not letting you try to commit suicide again like that."

"Yes," Etro said. "A body and a soul is a good exchange for two souls."

"I'll do it," said four voices instantly. The four then started glaring at each other.

"Snow, Serah needs you. You can't," said Lightning. "Besides, I have to protect everyone- including from this."

"Serah needs you too!" bellowed Snow. "But I can't just leave you here."

"Whoa everyone," said Sazh. "The obvious choice here is me. Vanille's like a daughter to me." He looked down for a moment. "I ain't got that much longer to live anyways."

Lightning snorted. "Dajh can't even sleep without you. You have to stay! Me, on the other hand…"

"Light-" Snow started.

"You're _engaged_, Snow!" Lightning shouted. "Are you going to just leave Serah, your beloved? You're supposed to _never_ leave her!"

_Clink_.

The three bickering friends turned at the sound to see Hope laying down his backpack, and slowly walking over to the impassive goddess.

"No, Hope!" Lightning shouted, lunging.

"You idiot!" Snow growled as he started running as well.

"Children these days," Sazh muttered bitterly as he started running. "Never think."

"Are you the one?" asked Etro as Hope approached.

"No!" screamed Lightning. "Not Hope, no!" She tried to push past Hope in front of the goddess, but a golden barrier summoned by Etro barred her way.

"Anyone but him," Snow added somewhat grimly, punching the barrier, but only succeeding in bruising his fist. He looked beseechingly at Etro, then back at Hope. "I owe you my life still! You can't just ignore that!" He punched the barrier again, but it refused to budge. He punched it yet again.

"You guys don't understand," Hope said. "I have to do this. You all have people who need you. Light and Snow, Serah needs you both. And Sazh, Dajh needs you too." Hope looked down at himself again. "But Dad died with PSICOM-" he choaked for a moment- "and mom-"

"Hope, we all need you," said Lightning with a pleading look in her eyes. "Please, come back?"

Hope shook his head, platinum hair waving in the wind. He turned to Etro again, the entire party looking on in despair. "I'll do it."

"No- not another one…" Lightning said. A single tear leaked out of her left eye. "Not Hope…"

"Sazh," said Hope. As the old man looked up, he saw a chocobo feather drift down in front of him. Looking up again, he saw Hope look at the sky. "Take care of Vanille, okay?" Sazh nodded slowly.

"Snow." The Blond behemoth froze, his fist in midair from trying to break the barrier. "Don't worry, mom and I forgive you." Raising his arm, Hope threw something that glittered in the eternal sun of Etro's realm. Snow caught it in his right hand, slowly opening his hands to reveal a locket. He opened the locket to see a picture of Hope and his mother, Nora. "I'm not giving up on you yet," he growled as he drove his fist yet again into the barrier.

"Light." Lightning blinked, and saw Hope toss his Airwing onto the ground next to her. "You taught me how to fight… you taught me everything. I'm only alive today because of you. Thank you."

Lightning reached down and picked up Hope's scarred, beaten, but trustworthy boomerang. Another teardrop joined the first, dripping down, beating a small circle in the weapon in her hands as she now stared numbly at the weakly smiling boy in front of her.

The boy she couldn't protect anymore.

"Bye guys," Hope said as he slowly backed away.

First his feet.

Then his shins, then his thighs.

Lightning, Snow, and Sazh could only watch helplessly as Hope's body and garments turned translucent blue. His chest, his arm suddenly freezing in mid-wave. His mouth, set in a sad smile. His eyes, twinkling one last time. His silver hair, waving, before staying still forever.

Then, the crystal began to just disappear. First, his feet, his legs. His torso disappeared into another realm. His arms, stuck in a wave forever, were lost. His hair, his eyes, his smile- all gone.

Except for one thing. It just clinked onto the ground, a tear-shaped piece of crystal. Lightning knelt and picked it up gently, holding the cool rock in her hands.

"_Grah_!" Snow shouted. He jumped forwards and punched a column, not caring about the damage it did to his knuckles, not caring about the goddess next to him. All he cared was that Hope, the man Nora had asked him to keep safe, was gone. The locket bounced on his chest as he lunged forwards again.

Sazh looked down at the feather he held in his hand. How could Hope, the boy everyone loved, the boy who'd hated being babied, yet was still the baby off the group- how was he just gone? How?

Lightning just looked up, holding Hope's boomerang absentmindedly in her left hand and his tear in the right. In the end, it didn't matter- she still couldn't save him.

Snow lunged forwards again, only for his injured fist to hit nothing but air. He opened his eyes, and beheld the sky of Gran Pulse and the plains of the Archylte Steppe, the statues of the two Pulsians so painstakingly carried next to them on a craig jutting out above the massive steppe.

There was no change.

"It didn't work." Sazh said in disbelief. "It _didn't work_."

"Damn it Etro!" Snow shouted to the sky.

"Wait." Lightning said in a slightly husky voice. She was fingering the edge of Fang's Sari.

It wasn't crystallized anymore.

Slowly, the crystal melted. It disappeared, and first was the edges of her sari, hard blue rock turning into soft cloth. Then, her body started thawing before it slowly reached her head, and everyone let out a breath as Fang slowly breathed in.

Suddenly, the raven-haired pulsian bolted upwards, "Vanille!" on her lips. Eyes wide, she looked around the people surrounding her and the crystal statue next to her, composing herself in an instant.

"Sunshine!" Lightning massaged her temples with her fingers to try to avoid smacking Fang in the face, before sighing out, "It's nice to see you too, _Fang_." Fang just winked at the annoyed soldier.

Snow stepped forwards, a massive smile on his face, when Fang jabbed him in the stomach with her finger, grinning. "Big brute, you're engaged!" Both let out a hearty laugh.

She turned to Sazh. "Not looking too bad Sazh," She said, before adding with a mischievous twinkle in her eye. "If you don't count that mop of Silver hair."

"I'm gettin' too old for this," Sazh muttered under his breath, but his face was still molded into a smile.

"An'… Hope?"

Instantly, all the Joviality that had been built up disappeared. Lightning looked away, a tinge of pain apparent on her face. Snow growled again, while Sazh just looked at Fang with a sad face and a shake of his head. Fang understood immediately.

None of them noticed Vanille slowly waking up in the corner. She snuck up behind Sazh with a wild smile on her face, and poked him, startling him. "Why the long face, old man?" she teased, before noticing everyone else had the same expression.

"What… happened?" asked Vanille. Then, "Why- where's Hope?"

Seeing the twitch that affected the group when she mentioned Hope, Vanille's eyes widened. "No. Not Hope. He's just… lost somewhere. He's not gone, he's just playing a prank. Right?" She pleaded desperately, looking wildly into everyone's eyes. _"Right?" _she nearly screamed. Snow looked down. Sazh shook his head. Fang just looked bewildered.

"I... I think this is for you," said Lightning in a husky voice, holding out the tear in her right hand. It was snatched out of the soldier's hand instantly, and clutched the to chest of the crying, pink-haired Pulsian.

"No!" Vanille ran up to the edge of the crag, tear in hand, blooming flowers ignored underfoot, the bright sun suddenly darkened.

Off in the distance, one could hear an anguished cry of, "Hope!" that carried, but still eventually faded away.


End file.
